[hendricks]

Hello everyone, my husband and I just became owner operators. He has been driving for a company for the past 18 years and we decided to go into business for ourselves.

We live in GA and we own a 26' box truck that holds 12 pallets.

We're trying to figure out the best way to find reputable brokers as well as decent load boards.

Any suggestions or information would be greatly appreciated!

[GMAN]

I assume that you are going to run under your own authority. Check with some of the expediter carriers. Most will broker loads that they cannot cover. If you are a member of OOIDA, you can get a discount on their Truckersedge - Truckersedge Software load board. It is a DAT load board. There are several loadboards. At one time I subscribed to Load Board - Getloaded and Internet Truckstop® Load Board - Find Freight Fast!. I would also check with Landstar. They broker freight and have an expediting division. Another major broker is CH Robinson. Both of them have their own loadboards. I have no idea how well they do with straight truck freight. I have also seen some LTL freight on uShip - The Online Shipping Marketplace - Ship Freight, Furniture, Cars or Moves. I was not impressed with the rates. There may be a loadboard specifically for straight truck or expedited freight. I would check around.

[hendricks]

Thanks GMAN! Yes, we have our own authority. We have been getting some work but feel we haven't been utilizing our truck to its full advantage. We've run a lot of loads from GA to various places (TN, MS, FL, AL, SC, etc.) but we have just delivered freight from GA to these locations and come back with an empty truck. We learned our lesson after doing this for the 1st 3 weeks or so! Now our plan is to find freight coming back as well. We're learning! :-)

Mark is still working full time for a company so it's our intention to put a driver in the truck during the week and run it ourselves on the weekends. We're hoping to build the business slowly to the point where he can stop working for the company. At this point he's staying partly because his job has the benefits and mine doesn't offer any.

We're still trying to figure out which loads to accept, what amount is our minimum, calculating fuel costs, etc. I spend a lot of time on the internet researching, reading. All of this is new to me so there will definitely be a learning curve but I think I'm up for the challenge!

I'll keep you posted on our progress. Thanks for your help!